New York City

Greetings,

Our trip has officially begun! Our two hour flight from Chicago to New York went very well as it was a beautiful day and we were still able to see some of the ground which was pretty amazing.  So far I love flying and I look forward to the start of flying again tomorrow.  That will most likely change after the first 12 hours or so.

Our time in New York was amazing! We got into the airport around 4:30 p.m. which was before my family even made it home from Chicago.  After getting all of our luggage loaded onto the wrong van and taken to the wrong hotel, we had to wait for a long time before finally getting to our rooms and dumping our stuff off.  After that we loaded up into a SUV cab and went to the subway to go downtown.  Times Square was the main attraction that we went to and nothing could have prepared me for the overall atmosphere.  The sidewalks were packed and huge crowds waited at every crosswalk.  The giant screens are so crystal clear with their advertisements and the billboards were phenomenal.  The buildings seem to go up forever on either side for miles and miles.  While I never could see myself living in a place like that, I can see the beauty and the positives behind it.  We then had some great pizza for dinner at the Little Italy pizza place right next to Times Square.  Bryce, Jon, and I split a large "Everything Pizza" that included ingredients varying from pepperoni to broccoli to anchovies.

Bryce has had some pretty neat adventures so far and he is doing his best to keep things interesting for us.  It started at the airport with checking in bags.  They asked him to bring out his immunology record and noone else was asked to do that.  After that, security ended up going through his entire bag.  That turned out to only be a flashlight in his carry-on.  Perhaps the most intense encounter of the day was on the subway back from our trip to downtown New York.  A gentlemen (that reeked of alcohol) was going around the train making some very racist statements towards several of the African Americans riding in the same section.  Then for no known reason he began to talk to Bryce.  Without even a single acknowledgement from Bryce, he continued to go on for what seemed like 10 minutes.  Asking Bryce about it afterwards he had spent most of the time trying to figure out what he was saying.

Tomorrow will be virtually all flying.  We leave in the morning around 11 and we have a 12 hour flight to Dubai followed by a 7 hour flight from Dubai to Lusaka.  There will be movies on the plane but sleep would be the ideal way to burn through some time.  Giving me the ability to sleep and sleep comfortably on the plane would be a great thing to pray for.

Over and out,

Aaron Spesard